The Next Generation of Mouse Pad Touch Controllers?

[MercedesMan98]

Six months ago, my beloved 2012 E350d cabriolet was written off by some moron, so I purchased a 2018 E220d Class Convertible. I really enjoy it (albeit I still mostly stick with my old car).

Even though it's a Premium Plus model, my NTG 5.5 (which does not have Command) only has one screen, physical rev counters, and a speedometer. Merc had disabling Android Auto on a car that cost £50,000+ when new, and I discovered out that someone had activated it for £150. Really? That's ridiculous.

My inability to change the radio station without using the on-screen or wheel-mounted menu is one of my complaints. (I was old enough to recall when a radio cassette had six buttons—you pushed one to choose, and then you pulled them out to choose the station—to play a specific song or artist). This is still an issue, though; I had to make each station a favourite so that I could choose it with a little more ease.

After six months of complaining, I reread the instructions and discovered that the touchpad next to the rotary controller should let me scroll between the radio stations by clicking the center button and swiping up and down. It comes close, but it has a few hitches, saves the station as a preset, and is generally unreliable. I had previously disregarded the tiny 4 mm crack on the touchpad, so I'm assuming that's the cause. It seems like there are two choices when you look at the web:

1. get a new touchpad (which all look worse than my current one), 2. remove the rotator and replace it with a single large touchpad (which costs £112; see Large Touch Pad Conversion), or 3. buy a new Chinese version from AliExpress (which costs £65 but is a pain to unstick and then requires regluing)

It seems like everyone on the forum uses the rotary knob instead of the touchpad. If that's the case, then how can one quickly switch the radio station? on the media player to find the correct spot in lengthy podcasts? Do I have this minor crack all wrong, or is that always the case when they're bad?

The big touchpad "upgrade" that our Chinese friends recommended has nobody put it in yet. If so, how? According to several reviews on YouTube, it doesn't play nice with the Android Auto interface—which is already annoying enough—but I have to use it for Maps since Merc wants to charge me £125 a month for live traffic updates, even though Google gives me probably more accurate ones for free. On my old A207, they were free but looked awful.

I would greatly appreciate some advice before I go ahead and charge it all to the car, ruining countless clips and screws in the process of removing parts that appear to be straightforward in the tutorials on YouTube.

[MercedesMan98]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009 ... Redirect=y

[MercedesMan98]

Still no responses.....

[Thomas_Green78]

In my E-level class, I almost never utilise the touch pad. Having the radio or media display on the right hand screen is a perk of having the twin digital displays. Then, I can change stations and the like using the little touch pad on the right side of my driving wheel. Uncertain as to whether the analouge dials can be programd to show radio stations.

[MercedesMan98]

In addition to the traditional analogue dials, I also have a digital display that shows the available radio stations. The usual Sat Nav setup is this, though. Navigating to the radio menu to switch stations and then returning to this is a real headache. This is obviously a first-world problem, but in order to get what I'm looking for, I have to click a few buttons and scroll down a few times. At the same time, I am not paying enough attention to the road. I remember that my previous A207 had actual buttons for this.
Keeping the rotary and getting a new touchpad from AliExpress seems like the best course of action.
The response is appreciated.

[MercedesMan98]

Just wanted to mention that I installed the whole unit (i.e., touchpad, metal stem, and, unexpectedly, the CPU component inside) that I got from AliExpress. It appears to be of equal or higher quality than the original, so I'm assuming it was manufactured in the same factory.

It was on sale for less than £50, and I saved £9 thanks to free postage on £20 worth of other items I didn't need. It was a steal of a deal, however it took a few weeks to get here. To save £35 I could have tried to replace only the surface of the mousepad, but in all likelihood I would have damaged something attempting to remove it and the connectors before glueing them back on.

[MercedesMan98]

It was simple to swap out; I just watched the video at

[MercedesMan98]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsNZ5KJcqDU

[MercedesMan98]

It appears to be functioning fine even when the button isn't depressed properly, so I doubt I'll bother opening it and re-screwing it. My only suggestion is to ensure that the unit is properly centred, since it is rubbing against my belt buckle and jamming its button.

Whoopee! Now I can quickly switch between the radio stations.

I had a hunch that this tiny crack (less than 5 mm in diameter) on my first unit was the source of the problem.

If you want to use Google Maps with Android Auto, you'll need to get the big AliExpress touchpad modification. From what I can tell, the only way to choose the icons in Google Maps is via the rotary controller; the touchpad doesn't work.

If anyone else is experiencing this problem, I hope this information is helpful.